page_title: Women's media in Francoist Spain
section_title: Music and dance
hierarchical_section_title: Women's media in Francoist Spain / Music and dance
caption_attribution_description: Español: Marisol Lacalle como "Beltrana" y Segundo García como "Cardona" en la zarzuela Doña Francisquita. Madrid, Centro Cultural de la Villa (después Teatro Fernán Gómez).
context_page_description: Women's media in Francoist Spain suffered as a result of Francoist Spain policy. Many writers, translators and others were forced into exile, or faced stifling censorship and harassment if they remained. Spanish restrictions meant writing became one of the few acceptable occupations for women, and literate women with few other outlets for participation in Spanish society became voracious readers.
  Internationalism disappeared in the early days of Spanish literature. The 1940s and 1950s saw the most popular form of women's literature being romance novels. Despite important literary contributions like Carmen Laforet's 1945 novel Nada, the 1940, 1950s and 1960s were a period where the broader male dominated literary establishment refused to take women's literary efforts seriously. The major theme in women's literature was trying to understand women's place in society in the period between the 1940s and 1950s, changing in the next decade with women beginning to challenge their role in society and to argue more for women's rights in literature. The death of Franco in 1975 would see women writers liberated in the themes they could explore.
context_section_description: Some forms of music were openly tolerated and supported in Spain, though expression within these genres was subject to censorship and artists were not fully independent.  These included zarzuela, flamenco, copla and pasodoble.  They essentially became stuck in time during the Francoist period.  In small towns like Picassent and Silla, the people who were allowed to show off their singing skills were primarily men, as it was viewed as unseemly for women to put themselves forward in this way.  A major theme in traditional songs became the female body and the beauty of a woman's virginity being protected.  In small towns, musical life would often center around the Church.
  Sección Feminina had groups dedicated to music and dance.  They were less about promoting and encouraging music than they were about using both music and dance to reinforce government sanctioned gender roles.  They only supported traditional Spanish music styles.
  Dance was particularly problematic in this period.  National Catholicism taught that dance was a moral and social ill, that encouraged the mixing of the sexes.  At the same time, dance was viewed as hugely important for creating a form of social cohesion and towards social activities.
caption: Marisol Lacalle and Segundo García in the zarzuela Doña Francisquita.
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